Another instrument of the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been shut down.
NASA announced on April 17 that the science team beamed a command 25 billion kilometres into space, shutting down the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, or LECP, in order to keep the probe going.
Launched in 1977, the Voyager twin probes (1 and 2) are the oldest operating NASA missions to date. Like its twin, Voyager 1 launched with 10 primary science instruments but almost 49 years later, it only has two of them operating. The LCEP instrument, NASA says, measures low-energy charged particles, including ions, electrons, and cosmic rays and it has proven invaluable in providing data about the structure of the interstellar medium.
To conserve power, engineers at @NASAJPL have turned off an instrument on Voyager 1 – but the science continues!
Voyager 1 has two remaining science instruments – one that listens to plasma waves and one that measures magnetic fields. Learn more: https://t.co/sqOXjiSdaL pic.twitter.com/nDcSQF8XYJ
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) April 20, 2026
Since the Voyager probes are the farthest any man-made object has ever been, they are the only source of this kind of data.
How long can NASA’s Voyager probes last?
According to NASA, the Voyager probes rely on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator – a device that converts heat from decaying plutonium into electricity – and each year, they lose about four watts of power. Since power is scarce, NASA has taken several instruments offline to ensure the spacecraft is alive and communicating with Earth while being warm enough to operate.
“While shutting down a science instrument is not anybody’s preference, it is the best option available,” Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a statement.
“Voyager 1 still has two remaining operating science instruments — one that listens to plasma waves and one that measures magnetic fields. They are still working great, sending back data from a region of space no other human-made craft has ever explored. The team remains focused on keeping both Voyagers going for as long as possible,” Badaruddin further said.
The need to shut down LECP arose after Voyager 1’s power level fell unexpectedly in late February. To avoid the lengthy process of a recovery mission, the team chose to kill power of the instrument, which NASA says has given the spacecraft one year of breathing room.
Voyager 2’s LCEP was shut down in March 2025.
According to NASA, the science team is planning another power-saving technique called ‘the Big Bang’ which involves swapping a group of powered devices with lower-power alternatives all at once.
This technique will first be tested on Voyager 2 in May and June this year because it is closer to Earth as compared to Voyager 1. If this technique works, they will implement it on Voyager 1 in July and if the team’s lucky, they could turn the LCEP on again.
Interestingly, Voyager 2 launched first on August 20, 1977 followed by its twin on September 5, but the latter left the solar system first and entered interstellar space in August 2012. Voyager 2 followed, becoming the second spacecraft to achieve this feat in November 2018.
ALSO READ: NASA’s Voyager 1 Will Be One Light-Day Away From Earth In 2026 – What This Means
ALSO READ: Jupiter Just Got Smaller: NASA’s Juno Probe Reveals Gas Giant Is Smaller Than We Thought
